Easy peasy recipe: a red smoothie.

Christmas is here, which means parties with family, decorations, lights, presents and loadtrucks full of food. I personally overeat quite a bit during the Holiday season, so here's a lighter snack that still has a Christmas-appropriate colour!

Favourite foundation.

If you know my make up habits a little, you'll know that I'm not a fan of foundation. I barely use it because it looks far from natural and it's never the right colour. That changed somewhat this autumn as I have discovered a foundation that I truly like!

Easy Peasy Recipe: a green smoothie.

As you can see by the number of times I've posted anything on this blog lately, I've been very busy. Nonetheless I'm trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Most recently I ventured into the world of green smoothies. As I understand it, those are smoothies with vegetables in them. Preferably a lot of vegetables and not too much fruit as to avoid too much sugar. So after blending a banana and an avocado that I still had laying around as an enthusiastic first attempt, I went to the shop to buy a few ingredients that I thought would work well together.

A couple new home bits.

I've been doing a bit of homewear shopping and decorating lately, so I thought I'd show you my favourite new items!

What I ate today.

Hello there!
Well this is not a full blogpost, but I wanted to show this: my very first YouTube video!

It's called "What I ate today.", so I suppose the concept is pretty clear to everyone. As the food journals I posted here were quite popular, I figured this might be interesting too!
Let me know what you think!

Sincerely,
R.

An exercise update.

It's been months since my last exercise update already! In the last update I'd just managed to transition from shod running to barefoot running. Here's how things have been since then!

German drugstore haul.

So my sisters and I made another quick trip across the border and went to DM in Germany. I didn't really need anything, but it's always nice to try a few new things!

Summer make up.

Exactly one month ago I tweeted I'd gone to the drugstore and got a few new goodies. I've written about a couple of them already, but I thought I'd show you them, tell you what I think, and tell you how I've been doing my make up this summer. 

 

Learning to relax.

Well, I haven't written many blogposts lately. Reason is that I need some time for myself. I've been very stressed out and need to learn how to relax. How? Here's some advice and a few products that I enjoy to help me.

Primark purchases.

Two friends of mine and I went to Primark in the weekend and naturally I got a few new things. It's always a special occasion to go there as we don't have one nearby. Here's what I bought!

Five pressed powders.

As summer arrived, my face has gotten a bit more shiny too. I usually don't wear foundation, but a bit of powder is often a good idea. So I'd like to show you the pressed powders I've got before using them any further!

A review: Essence lash princess volume mascara.

For the past nine months I've been using the same mascara, but as I ran out of it (and it's not available here) I was forced to try a new one. I always go for budget friendly mascaras and the one I picked is the Essence lash princess volume mascara. So let's take a look up close!

Two new Rituals products.

Again it's been a long time since I've posted anything here. I've been very stressed out a couple months back and needed to rest without feeling obligated to do anything. I didn't feel like writing, and the world wouldn't stop turning if I didn't!

But here I am again, writing a new blogpost! I wanted to show you two products from Rituals that I got recently, one of which should aid in relaxation!

A review: Kruitvat pure and nature lipbalm.

On Saturday I was browsing through drugstore Kruidvat. I wasn't in need of anything but I picked up this lipbalm. The ingredient list is what persuaded me to buy it, so let's see if it's any good! I also added a few alternatives that should be available in the UK.

An exercise update: going barefoot.

Spring is here, and there's only a few months left until bikini season. So how's exercising been? Well it's been awful for a while: I haven't been doing my planks and running was going bad. I neglected the planking because my shoulders were all tense (I'm getting that fixed now) and running wasn't going well because I've been under a lot of stress lately. But now I'm getting back on track with running and I'm doing it barefoot! Care to know how that's going? Keep reading!

A review: beautyuk blush.

Blushes are one of my favourite make up items! As I don't have much colour in my cheeks, they bring my face to live! On myself I much prefer pinks and peaches to brown and taupe. The blush I want to show you today is one of the brightest shades I have in my collection: beautyuk blush & brush in the shade Capital Pink.

Currently reading: Dreamland.

Lately I've been trying to read just one book at a time and it's rather nice to do so! The book I'm reading at the minute is called dreamland and was written by David K. Randall, who's a journalist. It's a non-fiction book that handles one of my favourite activities and topics: sleep. As you can see I'm not reading it in English; I got the Dutch version.

Easy peasy recipe: the best porridge I've ever had.

One day I was hungry and decided to make some porridge. I added some extras to make it more interesting and less carb-heavy. Now it's my new favourite breakfast! Here's the recipe!

Life with congenital heart disease.

So this is the second instalment of my life with congenital heart disease series. Last time, I wrote about the story of my past, now I want to tell you about the present. As I was writing this, it got too lengthy for one post, so I split it up in two. This one deals with daily life and scars, and next time I'll talk about medication and general health, exercise and check-ups.

A coffee addict's tea picks.

Are you a tea person or a coffee person? I can safely say I'm on team coffee! I drink it every day and sometimes I have more than I should. Recently however, I've been drinking more and more tea. I was stressed out and cut back on the caffeine to make sure my body wouldn't go into overdrive. So today I present you with my favourite teas, including the one that made choose for tea more often. By tea, I mean both actual tea infusions as well as herbal infusions that don't contain the tea plant.

A skin saviour.

When it comes to skincare, I only use very few product. Unless I need to take my make up off, I'll only use water to wash my face because I don't find skincare product add any value. Lately however, I've rediscovered a product that I've been using on and off for several years. This is Rivella's Derma Repair Complex. It's done my skin a world of good!

Life with congenital heart disease.

I've been in doubt for a long time about whether to write about this or not, but as I write posts on exercise regularly, it seems relevant to tell you about my heart disease and how it affects me. I'm not even sure where to start, but things I want to cover in this and following posts include a bit of my story, how it affects me in daily life, and how it affects how I exercise. So I decided to try and split it up into past, present, and future. Some things never change though, so it's not easy to completely split it up. Anyhow, here's the story of my past.

A recipe: fool-proof American-style brownies.

Do you like brownies? You know, chocolatey goodness, crispy on the outside and fudgy on the inside? Well if you do, keep reading! Here's a recipe that even I managed to get right from the fist time. When my family tried these, they told me how good they were and asked for the recipe, so they are definitely delicious.

The key to exercise success.

Over a year ago I started to run regularly to improve my stamina. As we're approaching spring, I'm also keen strengthening my abs and glutes a little. There's one single piece of advise that anyone who wants to work out should keep in mind. It has helped me a lot already and still does now.

A foundation light enough.

It's always a struggle to find a foundation that matches your skintone, but if you're on a budget and live in Belgium, things are even worse. Drugstores or brands seem to think we're all rather tan, since they don't sell their lightest shades here. But then MUA became available here too and there's foundation light enough for me in it's range: the Undress Your Skin Illuminating Foundation in the shade porcelain.

Journey to minimalist running: 4 to 5k.

Wow, it's almost been a month since the last update! It took longer than expected to get up to 5k because I had to take a break from running. But after that I picked it up where I'd left off and increased the distance again. Here's how running has gone along with my further plan and some notes on what's changed compared to running in classic trainers.

A make up wishlist.

Rationally speaking I find that I really don't need any more make up. And I try not to buy things I don't need, but of course there are a few things that I just want! Okay here it is:

A week's worth of food.

I decided to keep track of what I eat again for a week. Last time was in spring. It motivates me to eat more healthily because I know I'll publish it, and it's just nice to see it all written down and know exactly what I ate rather than having a vague idea about it. I also drink quite a lot of water before breakfast and throughout the day, but won't mention it, other beverages are always stated. And when I drink coffee it's always with a - big - splash of milk, but tea is just tea with nothing added.

Easy peasy recipe: buckwheat crepes.

It's been a long time since I posted an easy peasy recipe as I've been eating the same foods quite a lot, and dinner is usually either not inspirational at all or not easy enough to qualify for an easy peasy recipe. But lately I've been making dairy-free buckwheat crepes every now and then, so it's high time to share that recipe! As buckwheat contains no gluten, these crepes are also gluten-free.

A review: CD deodorant.

Somewhere towards the end of 2014 I posted a review of alverde deodorant, which was accompanied by a long story of how my sisters and I went to shop in Germany. Back then, I got two deodorants, and now I've finally come round to testing the other one too! So here's a review of CD deodorant "Glücksgefuhl".

Two pieces.

It is no secret that I'm not very good at fashion. I barely post outfits because a) my outfits are not that special, and b) I don't like asking other people to take pictures for me. But I do want to show you two of my favourite fashion items of the moment. And no, I'm not referring to a left shoe and a right shoe as two separate items.

The wintertime DIY: Bath melts.

So in the previous blogpost I mentioned how I got inspired to do this DIY whilst I was bathing. I usually shower, but when I do bathe I often take a glass of milk with a few drops of some essential oil with me. The milk helps to spread the oil in the water and conditions the skin. But on Saturday I added a bit of coconut oil to the mix for extra soft skin, and it worked like a charm! I'd seen bath melt DIY's before, and I came up with my very own recipe! So I made a small batch of bath melts, tested one and love them!

Journey to minimalist running: 3 to 4k.

Lately, I've been very motivated for going for runs and I enjoy them more - or in all honesty dread them less - than I did before. Doing three runs per week means I can increase the distance with 600m every week! I've worked my way up to 4 - FOUR!- k in my minimal shoes already! In anther week and a half I'll have reached my goal of running 5k in them, but first let us take a look at how the journey from 3 to 4k has been.

Journey to minimalist running: 2 to 3k.

In the past week and a half I've been running often and I've reached 3k in my minimalist shoes now! A couple more weeks and I'll be able to run my usual milage in them. Let me tell you how my short runs have been!

New Year's resolutions.

Last year I wrote down my resolutions. I only made two of them, but I think it's better not to make too many and stick to those than to make dozens and not stick to them. Let's see what's become of last year's resolutions and make some new ones!